This Can't Happen
by Pomtree97
Summary: Bay has never been able to define the way she felt around Daphne. She didn't feel like her sister, she didn't even feel like her friend. But when she started dating Emmett and she knew that it was hurting Daphne, she wasn't prepared for the guilt that started to plague her. Will hidden feelings emerge when the two try to mend the rift created by this boy? Daphne x Bay


**I obviously don't own Switched at Birth. I just love it.**

Mom and dad had gone out for something I didn't remember. I wasn't listening when they told me, all I heard was that they were leaving the house. Normally I would have been ecstatic, just glad to get some time alone without them trying to bond with me or telling me about some other terrible, life-changing thing that had happened. I had a few hours to relax. But that wasn't the case this time.

I had been dating Emmett for a few weeks. It was good, I guess. He was definitely the best boyfriend I had ever had, much better than any of the others. There was just always the communication issue. I was learning to sign and I was trying my best, really I was. But part of me knew that it wasn't just for his sake. Daphne and I couldn't talk to each other that effectively either. And I mean it would always be cool to talk to someone secretly, without anyone around you knowing what you were saying. She was a big reason I was working so hard though and part of me knew that.

She wasn't happy with Emmett and I's relationship. I understood why. But seriously she had the worst timing ever. He had liked her for years and years and she finally decides to like him back right when we start going out? What? It was literally the worst coincidence I had ever experienced or heard of in my life.

Emmett was more annoyed about the communication than I was, I thought. He just got upset because I wasn't deaf - even after that stuff he said about "not wanting a deaf Bay" I couldn't help but find myself thinking a lot of the time how much easier it would be if I _was_ a deaf Bay. We would be able to talk, it wouldn't be weird in any way, and our relationship would just be a lot less tense. But that wasn't happening. So there would always be a level of awkward and an area I couldn't go in if I wanted to prevent some kind of weird, signing argument.

Daphne wasn't talking to me. Or at least not as much as she would have normally. Emmett was off with Toby and Wilke at the show, and would be gone for a few days. I couldn't get what Daphne said to me in the driveway out of my head, it kept repeating itself every time I tried to forget about it: "I'm not giving up on Emmett." She was going to keep trying to steal him away from me. I knew that sounded weird when I really thought about it, neither of us _owned _him, and if anyone did it would probably be her. Part of me wondered sometimes if this relationship was even worth it. It was ruining a lot of things and stressing a lot of people out. I just did my best not to think about it.

But mom and dad were out of the house and Regina was off somewhere too. From what I knew Daphne didn't have anywhere go, really, if Emmett was gone. So she was probably in the guest house doing something. I was sitting cross-legged on my bed, my thumbs hovering above my phone, the screen displaying a blank message. It had been blank for probably half an hour now.

I didn't want any bad blood between Daphne and I. After all that had happened with the family and the switch and the secrets and the surprises, we had gotten pretty close. I didn't want that ruined because of some boy. What were we, twelve? Finally I just sighed, typing out a quick message and sending it before I could overthink anything. After staring at the black screen of my phone for a few more seconds, I forced myself to my feet and went downstairs, sitting in front of TV.

I turned it on and flipped idly through the channels, not really caring about what was on, tugging a blanket around me because it was pretty cold in the house. I settled on watching "Girl Code" even though it sort of made me feel weird, because I didn't relate to 75% of the things the girls claimed was common girl behavior. Was I different? Was that a bad thing? Or was the show just lying? This episode was apparently talking about playing sports, relationships with your dad, and "being crazy". While I was seriously considering changing the channel, I felt myself jump in surprise when I heard the door close.

Someone had come in. I turned around and was fairly surprised to see Daphne standing there, looking pretty uncertain of the decision she had made. I smiled at her, genuinely, and gestured for her to come sit down with me. She stood for a few seconds longer, as if deciding whether or not it was a good idea, leaving me in total suspense, before walking over cautiously almost like she was worried I was going to attack her. Really I was the one who should have been worrying about that.

She pointed towards the TV and asked me, "What are you watching?" She took a seat on the opposite side of the couch from me. I could tell she was making quite an effort to be as far from me as she could without being too obvious.

I signed to her to the best of my ability, her eyes flitting from the screen to me, "It's Girl Code. They just talk about idiotic things that girls supposedly do and explain or give advice on them. I honestly have no idea why it's a show." My heart jumped into my throat when she laughed. I smiled widely at that, extremely glad that this was much less awkward than I had expected it to be.

She was now watching the show intently, definitely trying to tell what was going on by reading lips. I realized it must have been hard for her to follow, considering that they didn't always show the person talking. Although we didn't watch TV together often, when we did I sometimes told her what was going on if she looked like she didn't understand.

"Uh, they're talking about how playing sports can get guys to like you," I signed and said, rolling my eyes afterward. I watched as she furrowed her brow with a smile.

"Is this entire show about getting guys to like you?" She asked.

I laughed, "Pretty much."

We didn't say much after that, since there was a commercial break and I obviously didn't need to tell her what was going on in commercials, that was just excessive. I felt a little weird that she was so far away from me. I mean, sure, we had little to no physical contact, which was sort of annoying, but it wasn't like we avoided it. She seemed cold, too. Her shoulders would shake every now and then and her hands were folded together as it conserve warmth. It was only when her entire body shook that I pushed aside the potential and inevitable awkward and scooted closer, wrapping part of my blanket around her shoulders. I could feel her tense up.

"I don't need-" She started to say and sign, but I interrupted her.

"-Shush. It's freezing. There must be a window open somewhere or something." Even though I felt just as uncomfortable as she probably did, it made things less weird if I pretended like it was completely normal.

Now we were _right _next to one another, our sides touching, watching the show now that the commercials had ended. Daphne always made me feel... something. It wasn't a sisterly bond or whatever because even in all this family confusion and mix up, nothing about us was related. We hadn't grown up together and there was no blood between us, not like how I grew up with Toby and she was biologically related to him. There was nothing in this situation that implicated we should act like siblings, and that wasn't what I felt anyways. It was something different but I had no idea what it was. Not friendship either. Even though I didn't even know what this feeling was I wondered a lot if she felt it too. Even with all this drama with Emmett, the feeling was still there, if anything it was stronger than ever.

I felt her tense up again, which snapped me from my train of thought. I actually started to pay attention to what we were watching and saw that the show was talking about "experimenting". But the first thing I saw was two girls making out on a couch with a narrator Daphne couldn't read the lips of. I started to feel sufficiently awkward as well, I couldn't imagine how she was feeling without any context to what was going on.

"Uh," Her attention was diverted to me, her green eyes questioning, "They're talking about experimenting with stuff..." I smiled in an attempt to dissipate this weirdness that had seeped into the air. It didn't really work. I was starting to notice just how close together we were, "...like with kissing girls and other things."

She just nodded slightly, her eyes moving from the screen to me again, as if waiting for me to explain further. When she realized I wasn't going to asked, "Exactly what is the point of this show?"

I let out a forced laugh, wondering if she could tell it was forced without hearing it, "Girls that watch it are supposed to relate to the stuff they talk about."

She opened her mouth but didn't speak for a moment, "Do you relate to... this?" She pointed to the screen at the last word, which still showed the same thing. The narration was making it make sense but without it this would have seemed sort of dirty.

I found myself at a loss for words, knowing that for some reason the honest answer to this question would take a while to find. At that thought I found myself even more confused, it shouldn't take long to respond to something like that, it was a simple yes or no question. As long as you were... certain of... certain things. Which I was. Right? My head started to spin at the unexpected uncertainty. So instead of answering I decided to deflect the question.

"Um," I kept my unfazed expression somehow, "Do you?"

I completely expected her to shake her head back and forth immediately, but she didn't. Instead she looked taken aback and almost scared that I had asked. Okay, so I had somehow managed to make this even more weird than I ever could have anticipated. A big part of me wanted to stand up from the couch, supplying some lame, clearly fake excuse and flee, but that would probably make things more awkward the next time we would have to interact and I didn't want that. So I forced myself to remain in my seat. And, exerting even more effort, surprisingly, I forced myself to keep our eyes locked together. And to not look as rattled as I felt.

The silence that spread probably lasted for five minutes, at least. It felt like a lot longer. Neither of us said anything, neither of us moved, the show kept playing but I wasn't even remotely paying attention to it. I was too busy staring into Daphne's eyes and trying desperately to determine the emotions displayed in them. I couldn't.

Finally I just found myself unable to endure this any longer. I was confused about my own inability to answer and at hers. I was worried that I had made her feel so weird that she might just never look at me the same way again. I just wanted to go into my room and lock the door, or go paint something, or hell, maybe even go out and bomb something somewhere. Just get away.

I turned my gaze away from her after what felt like years of us staring at one another and I started to stand up-

-only to feel her soft hand grasp mine and hold me firmly to the spot. The action startled and I gasped involuntarily, our eyes locking again. It was then that she started to lean closer to me. I was frozen, unable to move, my eyes flitting from hers that were starting to close and her lips that were getting so close to mine. I didn't know what to do or how to react. I still sort of wanted to stand up and just run away, getting out of this awkwardness. But as soon as our lips met all thoughts of leaving vanished immediately. I was held to the spot, entranced, infatuated. My eyes fluttered closed and I kissed her back without question, feeling her hand move to the back of my neck and feeling mine moving up to grasp at her hair with desperation.

She abruptly pushed me backwards onto the couch, laying on top of me, making me gasp into her mouth but not daring to stop kissing her. I felt like if I did I would wake up from some kind of dream, or that this would never happen again, or that she would realize what she had been doing and would apologize or something. The kiss got more heated and enthusiastic the longer it went on for, and I completely lost track of how much time passed. To me it didn't really matter. Just the fact that it was happening was enough surprise for me. When I felt her tongue slide into my mouth I did the same with her almost automatically, a bit taken aback that my response was so immediate.

I gasped again when she pulled away out of nowhere, her eyes still closed. Our faces were centimeters apart and it took every fiber of my being not to kiss her again. It was only when they opened and I saw just how apologetic and regretful she looked that I realized something was wrong. She quickly sat up again. It looked like she was about to have a panic attack or a nervous breakdown. I was still in shock from what had just occurred and could barely form thoughts, let alone try to comfort her or calm her down. But I sat up too, my body instinctively following hers. Some type of magnetic force pulled me to her again but before I could get close enough she stood up and backed away like I was on fire. I just stared at her.

"This..." She looked so upset and confused. I wanted to help her, I wanted to make her feel better, but I had a feeling she wouldn't let me. Not now, "...this can't happen. I'm sorry." With that she ran off, to the back door, and I jumped when I heard it slam shut.

In a stupor of disbelief I dragged myself from the couch and climbed upstairs, the TV still left on. The episode of Girl Code had finished. I didn't think I would ever be able to watch that show again the same way.


End file.
